How to React to Google Ranking Changes

How to React to Google Ranking Changes pixelwork

How to React to Google Ranking Changes

 

This happens to many webmasters at some point: you check your rankings and discover that your rankings have decreased. What can you do if this happens to your rankings?

It is normal for search results pages to change

Lower results generally fluctuate much more than higher results. If your website is new to the top 5 results, you can expect more fluctuations than websites that have been listed in the top 5 results for longer.

You can also expect greater fluctuation if the keywords are related to a current topic. If Google shows results marked “two hours ago” or “one day ago,” chances are the keyword is related to such a current topic.

If your website ranked in the same positions for several weeks before the rankings dropped, you should take a closer look at the changes.

Step 1: Find out what really happened

Before you can react to changes, you must discover what really changed. Here are some questions that may help identify the problem:

  • In which search engine has the ranking change occurred?
  • Has the change happened in a particular region?
  • What pages have been affected by the change?
  • Has the ranking change influenced your conversions and website traffic?
  • Did the same thing happen a year ago? This could be a seasonal problem.
  • When you have identified the pages, you can go into details:
  • What keywords caused the traffic change?
  • Which competitors got rankings for these keywords?

Example:

You may discover that ranking changes occurred with short category keywords. You also find that the pages and websites that earned rankings are informative. The pages and websites that lost rankings were shopping sites.

Things like this happen quite often. Google's algorithms could have reevaluated the intent behind a query group. In that case, Google decided that people searching for these keywords are interested in obtaining information, not buying.

Step 2: React Wisely

Don't arbitrarily change your SEO tactics. Find the reason for the problem and then react wisely.

If your competitors now have better rankings than your site, analyze your competitors' pages to find out why they rank better than your pages.

If your pages are down, there may be a technical problem on your website that is the reason for the ranking drop.